Wednesday, 20 November 2013

127 seconds

Warning: long post ahead. You might have to actually read.

Ok, this is so typically me, posting about events way after they actually took place. I mean, still post post pictures from the Portugal holiday in 2011 and Svalbard semester in 2012. So considering this post is about events that happened in August this year, I'm almost early.

Aaanyway, tagged along to a couple of limestone caves, Ramsåsgrottene, with a friend. Went into the upper Ramsåsgrotte first, which is a wet system, with a stream running through it. Couldn't get all the way through though, there's a little waterfall you have to climb up and I haven't got the skills for that (see video below btw for the waterfall, I'm pointing at where we were trying to go, but it was a dead end). Now, this cave is really tight horisontally, but several meters high in places, and meandering. Moving along therefore ment going up and down and up again, and squeezing and jamming and climbing and crawling. It was strange, how the shape of the cave was just like the englacial conduits (read: ice caves) on Svalbard, the water has worked on the ice and the rock in exactly the same manner, only on different time scales. Nature, eh?

Now, as I've mentioned before, stamina is not my strong side, and I was pretty knackered and quite hungry on the way out. I took a wrong turn past some loose debris and before I knew it a big chunk of rock had fallen down onto my wrist and jammed my arm between the cave wall and the big rock. Stuck, properly stuck. Ow. I could wriggle the rock a little bit, but not move it on my own. What do we do? We panic. Start yelling for my friend and these flashback pictures from 127 Hours keep popping up in my head, and I start crying. See, this is exactly why I would never be any good doing extreme sports.

Friend (also called Ivar by some) goes to other side of rock and manages to lift rock just enough for me to get my hand out. Crawl out last bit of the cave, eat lunch, and all is well again now that my blood sugar is back to normal. We then went into and through lower Ramsåsgrotta, which is quite a lot easier to move through, and not as wet. Still, you can't really be much bigger than me to get through, there are a couple of passages where you have to shuffle along while lying on your back or belly. People have managed to get stuck in lower Ramsåsgrotta too, just look at this.

Dragging one self through tight caves does not fare well for whatever you're wearing. Both my jacket and and trousers were nicely shredded at the end of the day. And then I fell into the mud on the way back to the car, because that's what I do...

Might also add that all in all, I thought it well fun and would recommend it to anyone who hasn't got claustrophobia. And now I have myself little story to tell.